HARRISON COUNTY,
INDIANA HISTORY
by W. H. Perrin
Harrison is one of the wealthiest counties in the
southern part of the state, agriculturally, and one of the most
important in the commonwealth in historical interest. Within its limits
occurred much that has passed into history. Within its limits also,
have figured some of the ablest men the State has known, now finger
marks are still to be seen, and whose statesmanship and wise counsels
have been largely instrumental in placing her in an honorable position
in the Union. For more than a decade of years from 1813 to 1825 its
county seat was the capitol of the State, and the old Capital building
still stands, a monument of historical interest. Here was once the home
of General William Henry Harrison, the farmer, patriot and soldier,
whose trumpets never sounded the notes of retreat, the hero of the
famed field of Tippecanoe, the ninth President of the United States,
and the grandsire of the President. Here such men as he; General Posey,
the soldier and patriot, the companion and friend of Washington;
Jennings, honest, pure, and heroic courage for the right, Harbin Moore,
"a meteor of brilliant thought and speech, and princely in courtly
elegance of manners and conversations;" the Boones unrivaled in pioneer
daring, that never quailed before their savage enemies, and in whose
lexicon there was on such word as fail; Spier Spencer, who laid down
his life on the field of Tippecanoe, and other master spirits of the
time, who lived out the measure of their days; and the fruit of their
labors here are yet visible. Their surroundings, however were such as
we know little of now, except by tradition. Pioneer life here, if all
authorities may be credited, was rough, rude, simple, sincere, honest,
warm-hearted and hospitable, and many of the men of mark of that
period, though brilliant, were erratic, often irreverent and
dissipated. Their lives were fevered and delirious, and upon the
postrum or in the forum they gleamed and flashed like blazing meteors.
In the metropolis of the territory and the young State centered the two
extremes of pioneer society; the rude implicitly, and the gifted
brilliant children of erratic genius. Above the mass, such men as
Harrison, Jennings, Posey, Moore, etc., towered the Saul above his
fellows. The leading events in the lives of these ,em, and so far as
they are interwove with the history of Harrison County, will be noted
as the sketch progresses.
Topography
Harrison is one of
the southern tier of counties, and lies in a great arc of a circle of
the Ohio River, which borders it for nearly forty miles and separates
it from the State of Kentucky. It is bounded on the north by Washington
County; on the east by Floyd County and the Ohio River; on the west by
the Ohio and Crawford County, and continues four hundred and seventy
eight square miles. By the last census it had a population of 21,326.
In common with the entire southern part of the State, it is rather
broken and hilly, but notwithstanding has a large amount of fin farming
land. The principal streams, besides the Ohio River, are Blue River,
forming the general dividing line between Harrison and Crawford
counties; Big Indian. Little Indian, forming a junction at the town of
Corydon; Buck and Mosquito Creek. These streams pass through narrow
valleys or canon like gorges, at a depth of three hundred to four
hundred feet below the highest hill-tops, and from one hundred and
twenty five to one hundred and fifty five below the the level of the
"barrens" or valley plateaus.
Barrens
The name "barrens"
applied to portions of Harrison County, is somewhat misleading to the
modern ear. The barrens were so named, be cause when first visited by
white people they were devoid of timber. The pioneers had an
exaggerated idea to the amount of timber needed for dwelling and fuel,
and seemed to believe that soil too poor to grow timber would scarcely
grow anything else. while the "bare situation would expose them to the
burning sun of summer and the fierce blasts of winter. These treeless
regions, for years swept by autumnal fires, until they were covered
with only a coat of rank weeds and prairie grass, presented, in many
cases the uniformity, without the monotony, of the western prairies.
They made a beautiful picture of the splendor and bounty of untrammeled
nature, and the rank grass was, in the spring and summer season, over
topped with radiant flowers while the ground, rich and fruitful, was
covered with wild strawberries. So prodigal was Nature of these
unappreciated bounties that the odors were wafted on the breeze for
miles.
Vast herds of deer
bounded leisurely over the quietly rolling meadows, and great flocks of
wild turkeys in their panoply of glittering green and blue plumage were
met in every direction, while thousands of smaller birds, such as
pheasants and quails might be had for the taking. Such were the
"barrens" which, far from being barren or sterile, were among the
richest and most productive lands in the southern part of the State.
But since the annual fires have been prevented by settlements, and the
opening of farms, these prairie barrens are now, where not in
cultivation, covered with young forest trees from 12 to 18 inches in
diameter.
Drainage
One of the most
important features of Harrison county it its subterranean drainage. No
part of the world, perhaps, exhibits this feature so significantly. The
rocky substratum of the county is, as a rule, limestone. The surface is
a porous mass of fruits, geodes, siliceous fossils and fragments of
quartz, the insoluble remains of this limestone dissolved and eroded by
atmospheric agencies. The rainfall is absorbed by this mass, as if by a
sponge, and quickly conducted to sink-holes and ever enlarging crevices
to underground canals or ducts. The result is a subterranean system of
rivers, creeks and brooks, which flow along in midnight darkness,
peopled with a peculiar, fauna fishes, crawfishes, worms and beetles,
in which the organs of vision, unused for generations and ages are
obsolete. This peculiar system. and its depth below the surface,
renders the supply of water from wells uncertain, and residences;
churches and school-houses ate usually supplied with cisterns for
securing rain water for culinary and drinking purpose At many points,
the prevailing good health may be attributed to the use of pure rain
water. another remarkable effect of this drainage is observed in many
electrical phenomena, seemingly countary to the well known laws of
electricity. Lightning rarely or never strikes on the hills or
tablelands, but generally are always in deep valleys and often in basin
shaped sink holes from 200 to 400 feet below the hills immediately
adjoining or contiguous. Dry, porous earth filled with air, is a poor
conductor. Such is the condition of areas, from a scientific
standpoint, under run by rivers and streams. The electricity seeks the
shortest line to a good conductor by passing though the humid air to
one of the underground water courses.